About me

This blogname was derived from a satiric Arabic novel by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby. In the ''The Secret Life of Saeed The Pessoptimist'' he uses absurdism as a weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. I consider it to be an example for how events in Israel/{Palestine best can be approached.
The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. In a way that is also still my motto.
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. In 2018, I concluded the study 'Arabic language and culture' at the University of Amsterdam.
I started 'Abu Pessoptimist' in January 2009 out of anger about the onslaught of that month in Gaza. The other blog, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The Israeli settler
Genadi Kaufman, stabbed in an attack at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron earlier this month,
died of his wounds Wednesday morning at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Kaufman

Kaufman, a resident
of the settlement Kiryat Arba near Hebron, came from the Ukraine 21 ago. He
leaves behind two children: a son from his first marriage who is in the
navy and a seven-year-old daughter from his second marriage. He worked
as a maintenance man at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Kaufman was critically wounded in a stabbing at the Bakery Checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron on December 7.His attacker, Ihab Miswada, 21, from Hebron, was shot dead.
Clashes broke out late Tuesday in Abu Dis following a funeral held for a
Palestinian killed earlier this month, whose body was held by Israeli
authorities for 26 days.Locals told Ma’an that 24 Palestinians were shot and injured by rubber-coated steel bullets while 19 others suffered from severe tear gas inhalation
when clashes erupted between locals and Israeli military forces.

Monday, December 28, 2015

A new report by Peace Now reveals that the Israeli ministry of Housing is planning to build 55.548 new houses, to construct two new settemenets, to legalize at least six so called ''illegal''settlements and to start building in the so called E1 area which will split the West Bank in two.

E1 as it is now: only the police headquarters is standing,

Summary and Main Findings:
In November 2013, following international pressure, Prime Minister
Netanyahu cancelled three tenders issued by the Ministry of Housing
(MOH) calling for architects to bid for contracts to plan tens of
thousands of housing units in settlements, including in E1. One year
later, far from the public eye (without any public tender), the MOH
hired architects to plan many of those plans. This planning, which
contradicts any possible commitment to a two-state solution, continues
through the present day.
In July 2013 Peace Now contacted the MOH, asking that it disclose its
list of projects in the settlements since 2012, pursuant to the Freedom
of Information Act. Only after Peace Now petitioned to the court,
requesting that it compel the MOH to disclose the information, did the
MOH revealed partial information: 200 pages with tables containing over
1,000 lines of data. This data, together with other sources, reveal that
the MOH is working on projects in settlement valued at over 330 million
NIS.Download the full report here

A Palestinian civilian from the Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, died at dawn Monday of wounds inflicted by Israeli bullet fire on Friday. A journalist of the Palestine Information Centre (PIC) said 48-year-old Youssef Abu Sbeikha succumbed to the wounds he sustained a few days ago in clashes with the Israeli
occupation army in eastern al-Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip.He was hit by the Israeli occupation troops with three shots in his chest, shoulder, and thigh, and underwent a surgery at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Abu Sbeikha was later transferred to the Shifa Medical Complex, where he died at dawn.
Abu Sbeikha was injured after the Israeli occupation army showered Gaza’s eastern outskirts with randomly-unleashed waves of bullet fire, killing 22-year-old Hani Rafiq Wahdan on the spot and wounding 28 more protesters.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Updated. Two Palestinians were shot dead after stabbing an Israeli soldier
in the village of Huwwara south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank,
locals and Israel’s army said. An Israeli army
spokesperson told Ma’an that two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a
soldier before Israeli forces on site opened fire, resulting in the death of both attackers.

The spokesperson said that
initial reports suggested that an additional soldier was injured as a
result of fire directed towards the attackers.

One
Israeli soldier received stab wounds to the face, while the other was
injured by a gunshot wound to the leg, according to Israeli media. Both
soldiers were evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.

Earlier Sunday morning Israeli police detained a Palestinian suspected of
stabbing and injuring an Israeli soldier near the central bus station in Jerusalem, Israeli police spokesperson Luba
al-Samri said in a statement that a Palestinian man in his 30’s stabbed
an Israeli soldier, 21, on Yirmiyahu Street behind the central bus
station.The man -- identified as Saed Muhammad Qumbuz from
al-Eizariya -- was held by a security guard on site until he was
detained by police who arrived to the scene shortly after.

Update. Israeli security
forces said they shot dead two Palestinian assailants on Saturday in
separate incidents in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as 12 weeks
of heightened violence showed no sign of abating. Near the Huwwara checkpoint in the north of the West bank the Israeli
military said a Palestinian rammed his car into Israeli soldiers. He wa shot and killed. Hours earlier police officers shot dead a Palestinian who, according to them, tried to stab a policeman near Jerusalem's walled Old City. Both accounts are disputed by Palestinian witnesses. ,
In the latest fatal incident, the Israeli military said a Palestinian rammed his car into Israeli soldiers at a
West Bank checkpoint. "Forces responded to the imminent danger and fired
toward the perpetrator," the military said, adding that one soldier had
been wounded and evacuated to hospital.
The 56-year-old Palestinian man died after being taken to hospital, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Palestinians disputed the Israeli military's account of the incident.
Jamil Dawoud, 49, said he was traveling in the car behind the one of the
man shot, at the checkpoint where soldiers were inspecting the vehicles
and that the soldier who opened fire appeared to misunderstand what had
happened.
"There were three soldiers. One soldier signaled for the man to come forward, a soldier was on the edge of the road and he tried to move backward when he slipped. The second soldier opened fire, firing four bullets at the man, after that they tried to give him first aid," Dawoud said.
In the other incident A Palestinian from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was killed Saturday after reportedly attempting to stab an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem, Israeli police said.

Friday, December 25, 2015

A Palestinian woman was killed on Friday after she allegedly attempted to run
over Israeli Border Police officers near the village of Silwad in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police said in a statement that
a woman in a vehicle approached border guards in an area where clashes
were taking place. The forces opened fire when they saw the vehicle
approaching, immediately killing the driver.

Israeli
forces also shot dead a Palestinian and injured several others during
demonstrations in the Gaza Strip for the third Friday in a row, the Ministry of Health said. Hani Rafiq Wahdan, 22, was
shot in the head near the al-Shuj'ayyia neighborhood east of Gaza City, a
spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidra, told
Ma’an. Nine others were hit by live fire.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Updated. Violence continued Christmas Eve day when a Palestinian was shot
dead during clashes with Israeli military forces in the Qalandiya refugee camp, the fourth to be killed in the occupied West Bank within
hours. Three Palestinians were shot dead earlier Thursday after carrying out separate attacks that left three Israelis injured.An
Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that Israeli forces had entered
the Qalandiya refugee camp in order to arrest suspects involved in an
attack earlier in the day.The forces opened fire when they
were “assaulted by a violent mob” that included gunmen and Palestinians
throwing explosive devices, Molotov cocktails, and stones, the
spokesperson said.
Locals identified the Palestinian killed as 23-year-old Bilal Zayed. Hours
before clashes erupted, another Qalandiya refugee camp resident was
killed when he rammed his vehicle into Israeli soldiers posted near the
illegal Geva Benyamin settlement, the Israeli army told Ma’an. Israeli forces opened fire and killed the
driver, identified by locals as Wisam Abu Ghwaila, 22. One Israeli
soldier was "very lightly wounded" in the attack, the spokesperson
added.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Updated. Two Palestinians from Qalandiya were shot and killed after carrying out a
stabbing attack at the Jaffa Gate of East Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli police said. The attack left one Israeli killed and another injured, while Israeli media reported that a third Israeli was accidentally shot at the scene and later succumbed to his wounds.
Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said that the Israeli that was shot at the scene was likely hit by live fire when border guards opened fire on the attackers. The border guards stationed at the Jaffa Gate are female police officers. Following the attack, one Israeli reportedly died from stab wounds, while another is in moderate condition.
One Palestinian was killed on scene, and the Ein Kerem branch of Hadassah hospital
confirmed that the second died shortly after arriving to the hospital.
The Palestinians were identified as Issa Assaf (19) and Anan Abu Habsa (20) from Qalandiya in the occupied West Bank. The area has recently been site to heightened tensions, with two Palestinians killed in the Qalandiya refugee camp last week after attempting to run over Israeli soldiers
present in the camp during a predawn arrest raid. The gunfire victim was named as Ofer Ben-Ari, 46, a married resident of Jerusalem and father of two. The man who was fatally stabbed was Rabbi Reuven Biermacher, 45, a married father of seven.

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution demanding Palestinian sovereignty over natural resources under Israeli occupation.
The draft solution, “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” was adopted with 164 votes in favor and five against.
Member states that voted against the measure included Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, and the United States. Ten other states abstained from the vote.
The resolution is the latest to be adopted through ongoing efforts by Palestinian leadership to take measures against Israel in the international arena following decades of failed peace talks.
The adopted resolution demands that Israel cease the exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment of Palestinian natural resources, and recognize the right of Palestinians under military occupation to claim restitution.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Suspected Israeli settlers early Tuesday attacked a Palestinian home in a
Ramallah-area village in the occupied West Bank in what appeared to be a
revenge attack for the arrest of Jewish extremists who carried out a
deadly attack last summer.
Hussein al-Najjar, 30, told Ma'an that settlers arrived to his home in the village of Beitillu
around 1:30 a.m. and vandalized the exterior walls of the house before
smashing in a window and throwing three smoke grenades inside.

Al-Najjar said that he and his wife as well as their 9-month-old son Karam suffered from severe smoke inhalation.

"The
family survived death thanks to the intervention of neighbors who broke
open the main door and evacuated the family, who were found
unconscious," al-Najjar told Ma'an.The phrases “revenge”
and “hello from the detainees of Zion” were spray-painted in Hebrew on
the side of the home according to photos released by Israeli media of
the scene.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

The Israeli Air Force assassinated, on Saturday at night, the former
political prisoner and senior Hezbollah leader, Samir al-Quntar, in an
air strike in the Jermana area of the Syrian capital Damascus.
The Hezbollah party in Lebanon said the Israeli Air Force violated
Syrian air space at around 10:30 at night, and fired five missiles into a
residential building, killing six people, including al-Quntar, and
woundingat least twelve others.
The Civil Defense Forces in Jermana said two Israeli war jets violated
Syrian airspace and struck the building with four missiles.
Initial reports were first unconfirmed, but his brother later announced on his Twitter account the confirmed dead of al-Quntar.
Samir al-Quntar spent 29 years in Israeli prisons, and was released on
July 16 2008, under a prisoner-swap agreement reached through
negotiation between Hezbollah and the Israeli government through a third
party.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers on Friday. One during clahes in te village of Sinjil, one in Gaza and one after an unsuccesful verhicular attack.
Nashaat Asfour, 33, succumbed to his wounds on Friday hours after he
was shot and critically injured during clashes with Israeli forces in
the village of Sinjil north of Ramallah. Israeli soldiers
shot him in the chest with an explosive bullet. Asfour underwent an operation at the PalestinianMedical Complex in Ramallah, where he succumbed to his wounds hours
later. The use of explosive bullets, also called expanding bullets or "dum dum" bullets, is illegal under international law due to the brutal damage inflicted on the victim, as
the bullets are made to splinter apart and become lodged, instead of making a clean exit through the body.Israel has repeatedly denied claims that its forces use such bullets, however Palestinian medical examiners have on occasion documented their use.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel and
Turkey have reached "understandings" to normalise ties, at a low since
the Jewish state's deadly 2010 raid on a Turkish ship headed for the
Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said Thursday.

The deal,
drafted at a secret meeting in Switzerland, calls for Israel to
compensate victims of the raid, a return of envoys, for which an amount of 20 million dollars will be reserved, and the start of
talks on gas exports to Turkey, the unnamed official said.

All
Turkish lawsuits against Israel will be cancelled, and Turkey will
prevent senior Hamas operative Salah Aruri from entering its territory
and acting from there, the source added.

Israel has long accused Turkey of letting Aruri plan deadly attacks from its territory.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian near the Huwwara military
checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus on
Thursday, Israeli media reported. Palestinian ambulance driver Kamal Badran identified the Palestinian as
15-year-old Abdullah Hussein Nasasra, from the Nablus-area village of
Beit Furik. Badran told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers gathered around the teen preventing medical teams from treating him after he fell. No Israelis were injured during the incident.
Initial reports indicate that the Palestinian was shot dead after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier at the checkpoint. No Israelis were injured during
the incident. The deaths mark at least 127 Palestinians to
be killed since violence escalated in the occupied Palestinian
territory in October. Much of the recent violence has been
carried out through attacks carried out by Palestinian individuals that
have left 19 Israelis killed in the same time period.
The circumstances of several deaths have been widely disputed by critics who
say that Israel has implemented a "shoot-to-kill" policy against
Palestinians.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Jerusalem building and planning board on Wednesday approved a plan to construct 891 housing units in Gilo, a settlement (neighborhood of Greater Jerusalem) on Palestinian land. Three weeks ago, the plan was pulled at the last minute, fearing a sharp American reaction during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States. The plan for the southern slope of Gilo, in East Jerusalem, was given initial approval in late 2012. The plan involves private land.
Ir Amim, an organization advocating Jewish-Arab equality in the capital, condemned the step.
“The behavior of Netanyahu and his government concerning approval of the plan on the slopes of Gilo is another example of the cat and mouse games the Israeli government plays with the Americans regarding building in East Jerusalem," the group said. "Continued unilateral steps, such as this, will only deepen the crisis that Israel is descending toward in lieu of a diplomatic agreement and will destroy any chance of reaching a real and just solution in Jerusalem.”

Updated: Hundreds of Israeli military and tens of military vehicles have stormed the Qalandia camp near Jerusalem one hour after midnight on Wednesday morning in an action to look for people they wanted to arrest, the Israeli army said. During the operation two Palestinians were killed. Also Wednesday an 18-year old girl died from wounds she sustained in October at the Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus, when Israeli soldiers opened fire at another Palestinian who alledgedly attempted to stab a soldier. The girl, Samah Abd al-Mumen who was sitting in her car when she was hit, was the 126th Palestinian to be shot dead since 1 October.
One the two Palestinians killed in the Qalandia camp was the 21-year old Ahmad Jahajhe (picture on top), the other the 29-year old Hikmat Hamdan from El Bireh (picture below). Both had been trying to run over troops with their cars, according to the army. Also four Palestinians were severely wounded by gunshots during the operation. One Paletsinian was arrested. The number of wounded since 1 October amounts to more than 13.000.
The Israeli military reported Wednesday morning's news under te headline: ''three soldiers wounded''. It seems that the three were lightly wounded by friedly fire, the site YNet reports.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

According to Haaretz some two-thirds of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip support the use of knives in the current confrontations with Israelis, back the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and advocate abandoning the Oslo accords with Israel, according to the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
The pollsters noted several trends compared to the previous survey in September. They observed that "a growing majority supports return to an armed intifada; and a growing majority continues to reject the two-state solution." While 68 percent of the 1,270 adults surveyed said they supported abandoning the Oslo accords, 67 percent of those supporters believe Abbas is not serious about doing so. Researchers referred to the "Oslo generation" of youths between the ages of 18 and 22, who they say are the most supportive of an armed intifada and the least supportive of a two-state solution.
If presidential elections were held today between Isamil Haniyeh of Hamas and Abbas, Haniyeh would win 51-41 percent. That showing is an improvement for Haniyeh, who led Abbas 49-44 in the previous poll. The only Fatah figure who could beat Haniyeh is Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his role in the murder of Israelis during the second intifada.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Eleven people were
wounded in a vehicular attack at the entrance to Jerusalem on Monday
afternoon, by the Chords Bridge. The attacker was neutralized. Six
people were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, including a one and a
half-year-old baby and a 65-year-old woman in moderate condition, and
four people in light condition. Five were taken to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem with light wounds.
The attack happened shortly before 3pm local time. The attacker, who is from East Jerusalem, arrived in a private vehicle to Herzl Boulevard and proceeded to drive into a bus stop, hitting several people. A security guard and a member of the security forces saw what was
happening and shot the terrorist, neutralizing him before he could get out of his car.
The word neutralized of course is a euphemism for killed. The driver of the car was shot dead.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Israeli military forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian and injured 17
others in clashes east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza
Strip, Palestinian officials said. Ashraf al-Qidra,
spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, identified the victim as Sami
Shawqi Madhi, 41. He was shot in the chest and died instantly, al-Qidra
added. Ten other Palestinians were injured during the clashes and taken to hospital for treatment.
Israeli
forces opened fire at demonstrators along the border east of al-Bureij
refugee camp and at the Nahal Oz crossing, where protesters set fire to
tires. Locals said Israeli snipers were deployed in the area.There
were also reports of clashes near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and the
Erez crossing in the north, where seven were injured by live fire in
their lower extremities, al-Qidra said.

A Palestinian man was shot and killed during clashes in the Ras al-Jura area of Hebron on Friday, witnessestold Ma'an.A Ma'an reporter said Uday Irsheid, 24, was shot in the chest and critically wounded during clashes with Israeli military forces at the northern entrance to Hebron. He later died from his injuries. Earlier the same day Israeli soldiers shot dead a 55-year old man in a car in Halhul, in the Hebron dsitrict.

`Uday Irsheid

`Uday Irsheid's 17-year old sister, Dania, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Hebron on 25 October. She was shot dead after police officers allegedly saw "a knife
in her hand." No Israelis were injured during the incident.A
witness told Ma'an at the time that he saw a schoolgirl with a
schoolbag on her back trying to cross the Israeli checkpoint near the
Ibrahimi mosque." An Israeli soldier asked her to take the
knife out of her bag, then she was immediately fired upon. "Seconds later the schoolgirl was lying on the ground
bleeding," the witness said.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Four Israeli soldiers were wounded in a car-ramming attack at the Beit Arye junction, near the settlemenet of Ofarim, in the West Bank on Thursday afternoon.One of them was critically wounded and another three were moderately and lightly wounded.They were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. All four are in their 20s, according to Magen David Adom paramedics at the scene.
According to the police, a black Isuzu vehicle rammed into the four between the Palestinian
village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and the Israeli settlement of Beit Aryeh-Ofarim.The car was later found abandoned in the village of Rantis.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian, Abdel-Rahman Maswara, was shot dead after carrying out a stabbing
in the southern West Bank's Hebron city, during which two Israeliswere injured.

A former member of the Jewish Underground and his wife were wounded Wednesday evening in a shooting attack in the West Bank, only hours after two others were wounded in a stabbing attack in Hebron.
The Palestinian who reportedly carried out the attack In Hebron was shot dead. He was identified as Abd al-Rahman Yusri Maswada.He
was the cousin of Ihab Zakariya Maswada, 21, who was killed by Israeli
forces on Monday after he stabbed an Israeli near Hebron's Ibrahimi
Mosque. Abd al Rahman was the 119th Palestinian to be killed in this way since 1 October.
Shaul Nir, the former member of the Jewish underground, was found guilty of perpetrating a 1983 shooting and hand grenade attack on the Islamic College of Hebron, which killed three students and wounded 33. After being sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the attack and attempted assassinations of Palestinian officials, President Chaim Herzog commuted his sentence and ordered his release in 1990, after serving less than seven years.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Gazan Civil Defense rescue teams on Tuesday morning were battling to
save the lives of 14 Palestinians who went missing inside a smuggling
tunnel when Egyptian military forces flooded it with seawater.
Muhammad
al-Meidana, a Civil Defense official, told Ma'an that rescue teams had
been able to save the lives of seven tunnel workers, but that contact
was lost with 14 others, who were now missing.
Smuggling
tunnels that pass beneath the Egyptian border have served as a lifeline
to the outside world for Gaza's 1.8 million inhabitants since Israel
imposed a crippling siege in 2007. Egypt has sought to
destroy the tunnels as part of an ongoing security campaign in the
northern Sinai against anti-regime militants, which Egypt accuses Hamas
of supporting, although Hamas strongly denies the accusations.
The Palestinian Chronicle reported that the Egyptian army started on Monday to pump large amounts of sea water into large pipes that have recently been extended across the border connecting Gaza and Egypt in an attempt to destroy tunnels used to smuggle goods into the besieged Strip.

Israeli forces shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian during a predawn
detention raid into Duheisha refugee camp to the south of Bethlehem on Tuesday.
Medics identified the Palestinian as Malik Akram
Shahin and said he had been shot in the forehead, where the bullet
remained lodged.Witnesses said he was "left bleeding for
long before he was evacuated to the public hospital in Beit Jala, where
medics pronounced him dead.
"He was killed when large
numbers of Israeli forces stormed Duheisha camp in the early hours of
Tuesday, detaining a number of local residents and delivering summons to
others. As the soldiers broke into Palestinians' homes,
they reportedly fired live rounds, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades
"indiscriminately" through the camp's narrow alleys.

Monday, December 7, 2015

A young Palestinian man was shot dead after he allegedly stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli man near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron's Old City on Monday afternoon, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said Israeli Border Police shot the Palestinian after he stabbed an Israeli man in his 40s.The Israeli was evacuated to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem for medical treatment in critical condition.
Locals identified the Palestinian as 21-year-old Ihab Fathi Miswadi. He was number 117 since 1 October to be killed. Israeli forces prevented Palestinian emergency services from reaching
Ihab to medical care after he was shot.The soldiers did not provide any medical care themselves, locals said.

Palestinian leftist and feminist parliamentarian and advocate for
political prisoners Khalidda Jarrar has been sentenced by an Israeli occupation
military court in Ofer to 15 months imprisonment today, 6 December 2015. Arrested by occupation military forces who invaded her Ramallah home on
2 April, the imprisonment of Jarrar, former executive director and
current vice-chair of the board of directors of Addameer Prisoner
Support and Human Rights Association, has sparked widespread
Palestinian, Arab and international outrage.
Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for the Abu
Ali Mustafa bloc, the parliamentary bloc affiliated with the leftist
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 2014, she had been
targeted for forced displacement to Jericho from Ramallah by an
occupation military order, which she succeeded in defeating after a
month-long sit-in at the PLC office and an international support
campaign.

A Palestinian man was shot dead after he allegedly injured two Israelis
in a stabbing attack in central Jerusalem on Saturday night, Israeli police said. He was the 116th Palestinian to be killed since 1 Ocrtober.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld
said the Palestinian, identified as a 21-year-old from Beit Hanina in
occupied East Jerusalem, was shot and killed after he allegedly hit one
Israeli with his car, before stabbing another with a knife.
However,
the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that one of these Israelis was
injured when he was apparently "hit by a vehicle that passed by the
scene as he was attempting to flee."Rosenfeld initially
reported that a third Israeli had been injured during the incident, but
later confirmed that this person was treated for shock. A
spokesperson for Shaare Zedek hospital confirmed that two Israelis were
brought there with "very light" wounds. She said that one of them was an
Israeli soldier, who appeared to have been stabbed, while the other had
been hit by a car.The scene of the incident, in West Jerusalem's Romema neighborhood, was closed off by Israeli police.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Updated Two Palestinians were shot dead near Ramallah on Friday after separate
alleged attacks targeting Israeli military forces in the occupied West
Bank, Israel's army and Palestinian officials said. That happened after early in the morning two cousins had been killed in Hebron,.
One Palestinian was shot and killed near the illegal Ofra settlement north
of Ramallah after ramming his car into a group of Israeli soldiers,
according to the Israeli army. Two
soldiers were injured, they suffered minor injuries.The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the killed Palestinian as Anas Bassam Hammad.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Updated. A Palestinian was shot and killed near Damascus Gate in occupied East
Jerusalem on Thursday evening after stabbing an Israeli police officer. He was the second Palestinian to be killed that day and the 110th since 1 October.
An Israeli police spokesperson said the officer was stabbed in Jerusalem,with the attacker "shot and killed" at the scene. The policeman,in his mid-thirties, suffered moderate injuries and was transferred to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Israel's Channel 2 news later said he was hit by friendly fire as Israeli forces shot at the attacker. Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said the victim suffered stab and shooting wounds and was in a moderate condition. The attacker was identified by the Israeli police as a 21-year-old Palestinian from the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem. The incident took place on a section of Hanevim Street near Damascus Gate in the Old City.
Earlier in the day a Palestinian was shot and killed after opening fire on Israeli soldiers stationed at the Hizma military checkpoint north of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces early Thursday demolished the Nablus home of a Palestinian man suspected for organizing an attack in October that left two Israeli settlers dead, Palestinian security sources said.The demolition took place a day after Israeli forces carried out another demolition in the Shu'afat refugee camp near Jerusalem, after which heavy riots broke out.
Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the al-Dahya neighborhood in the southern area of Nablus before demolishing the home of Ragheb Ahmad Muhammed Alawi. Israeli soldiers forced Alawi’s family to evacuate the home hours before the demolition, a relative, Ahmad Alawi, told Ma’an. The home was inside of a four-story building that held eight total apartments, and the demolition likely caused damage to neighboring units,Alawi added. In the six or seven cases that Israel destroyed houses of suspects earlier these months, at least more than double that number of neighbouring houses was destroyed as well in the process, the human rights organisation B'tselem reported recently.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Updated. - An Israeli military officer shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian
girl at a checkpoint Tuesday east of Tulkarem on Tuesday, saying that she had
attempted to stab him, Israel's army said. Earlier, on Tuesday morning, a Palestinian teenage boy was shot dead by Israeli forces in the illegal
settlement bloc of Gush Etzion after he allegedly
attempted to attack a settler with a knife, Israel's army said.
An Israeli army
spokesperson said that the officer killed the young woman at a
checkpoint near the illegal settlement of Enav east of Tulkarem because
she posed an "immediate danger" to him.The Israeli officer was not injured and Palestinian witmesses said that they had not seen that the girl had a knife.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Israeli forces on Sunday evening shot dead a Palestinian teenage boy
during clashes in the neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem. The Wadi Hilweh Information
Center, the information Centre of the inhabitants ofSilwan, said that 17-year-old Ayman Samih al-Abbasi died after he was shot in his chest in the Ras al-Amoud area of Silwan.
Israeli
forces subsequently stormed the local Ein al-Lozeh medical center searching for the boy's body, but were reportedly unable to find it. The center added that Israeli police held medical staff inside the center and prevented them from leaving.Abbasi had previously spent 18 months in Israeli jails and a further 10 months under house arrest. The
circumstances in which he was killed were initially unclear, with
locals saying that the Ras al-Amoud area was mostly calm before he was
shot dead.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man on Sunday after the man
allegedly stabbed and injured an Israeli police officer near Damascus
gate in occupied East Jerusalem. The attacker was a 38-year-old Palestinian from
the Nablus district of the northern occupied West Bank. Local
sources identified him as Basseem Abdul-Rahman Mustafa Salah. The
Israeli police officer who was injured is reportedly in light to
moderate condition, a Magen David Adom medical service spokesperson
said. Witnesses near the near scene told Ma'an that
Israeli police shot the Palestinian man at least 11 times during the
incident, adding that Israeli forces did not allow medics to reach him.

Friday, November 27, 2015

The car with which Fadi Khassib crashed into a bus stop at Kfar Adumim.

A Palestinian was shot and killed on Friday after a vehicle
attack in Beit Ummar which left six Israeli soldiers injured. An Israeli army spokesperson said
that six Israeli soldiers were injured in a "car ramming" in Beit Ummar
north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. The area was closed off following the attack. The victim was identified as Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19. Four soldiers were moderately injured and two suffered light injuries.
OmarZaqiq was the second Palestinian killed on Friday. Earlier the 25-year old Fadi Khassib from Ramallah was killed after a suspected car attack near the settlement of Kfar Adumim.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Yahya Taha from Qatanna, who was killed today, is seen here praying at the grave of a relative, who was killed in August when fleeying after he attacked a soldier with a knive. (Photo YNet)

Updated. A 19-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed in al-Arrub refugee camp in northern Hebron on Thursday during clashes, medics told Ma'an, the 3rd Palestinian to be killed during the day. Red
Crescent officials said that Khalid Mahmoud al-Jawabreh, 19, was shot twice in the stomach by Israeli soldiers and later died from his injuries in the al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.
The teenager was shot during clashes in the camp between youths and armed Israeli military forces. The Arrub-camp which lies next to Road 60, which connects Hebron with Bethlehem, has been closed off for days. Ambulances had to take a long alternative route befre they reached the camp.
Earlier Thursday Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man at the Za'atar checkpoint south of Nablus, who according to reports by the Israeli army, tried to stab soldiers. No Israelis were injured. According to initial accounts, the assailant got out of a taxi at the checkpoint, located at the Tapuah junction, and ran with a knife toward soldiers shouting “Allahu akbar,” the Israeli police said.
Police launched a hunt for the taxi, according to Israel Radio, and arrested a taxi driver nearby, though it was not immediately clear if it was linked.
Yet a few hours earlier the Israelis killed a 21-year-old Palestinian when clashes broke out during an arrest raid in the town of Qatanna northwest of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The three o killed men had the dubious honor to be the 100th, 101st and 102nd Palestinians to be killed since 1 October.

The damaged car of a Palestinian who on Tuesday wounded four Israelis in a suspected car-ramming at the Za'atara checkpoint near Nablus (see below, Photo WAFA)

A 16-year-old Palestinian shot by Israeli forces during clashes two
weeks ago succumbed to his wounds on Wednesday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The ministry said doctors failed to save
the life of Ibrahim Abdul-Halim Dawood, 16, after the teen was shot in
his heart during Ramallah clashes two weeks previously.Dawood,
from the village of Deer Ghassan in the central occupied West Bank
village of Ramallah, is the second Palestinian teen to lose their life
on Wednesday.
Earlier, Israeli forces shot and killed
Muhammad Ismail Shubaki, a 19-year-old student, after the teen stabbed
an Israeli soldier near al-Fawwar refugee camp in the southern occupied
West Bank district of Hebron.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Funeral of the killed family members of the Al-Louh family in Deir al-Balah, 20 August 2014. (Photo APA)

Four Palestinian human rights organisations delivered a confidential
communication to the prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court (ICC) in The Hague, Fatou Bensouda, on behalf of themselves and Palestinian victims of Israel’s
“Protective Edge” operation in the summer of 2014. The communication, which was submitted by
Al-Haq, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Aldameer and the Palestinian
Center for Human Rights pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute,
contains information on crimes jointly documented during Israel’s 2014 offensive against the Gaza Strip.
“We have become used to Israel killing and injuring Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip. The 2014 offensive is the third war on our people in about
six years. But nothing could have fully prepared me for the devastating
loss of my sons, grandsons and granddaughters in an attack against our
family home.” said Bouthaineh Al Louh, a Palestinian
57-year old grieving mother.

Monday, November 23, 2015

A Palestinian man was shot dead after stabbing and killing an Israeli settler on Route 443 west of Ramallah on Monday, Israel's army said.An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an that a "Palestinian murdered an
Israeli and wounded another in a stabbing attack" with the injured victim evacuated for treatment.
Israeli forces responded on site to the incident and shot dead the Palestinian attacker, the spokesperson added.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the suspect to Ma'an
as Ahmad Jamal Taha, 16, from the Qatanna village near Ramallah.Israeli news site Ynet reported that the soldier who was stabbed and killed has been identified as Ziv Mizrahi, 20.

The homes of neighbours of Muhammed Abu Shahin, whose house was destroyed as punishment, ware destroyed as well. This used to be the house of his neighbours, the family 'Amer. (see below). (Photo B'tselem).

Soldiers from the Israeli Border Police and the IDF’s Home Front
Command shot and killed 22-year-old Yousef Awad in the West Bank village of Budrus last Friday, reporting that he tried to grab a weapon from a soldier. He was, however, from shot in the back and from some distance.
The Israeli army reported that ''during a violent and illegal riot in the village Budrus, in which
approximately 80 Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails toward
the security fence, a main rioter who resisted arrest was detained and
even tried to grab the weapon of one of the soldiers. The troops
responded by shooting him and a hit was confirmed.''
However forensic evidence, an autopsy and photo's of the wounds on Awad's body, show that he was shot from behind. Moreover Palestinian friends who were with him testified that Awad was first shot in a leg with a rubber bullet, and was grabbed by the soldiers. When he managed to get away and ran, he was shot again, in the back this time and with live ammunition, from a distance of about three meters.

Israeli forces shot two Palestinian teenage girls, killing one and
wounding the other, after they were allegedly involved in a stabbing
attack near a central Jerusalem market on Monday morning, Israeli police
said.
The incident took place near the Mahane Yehuda
market on Jaffa Street, with Israeli media initially reporting that two
Israelis were wounded in the alleged attack.The girls were reported by Israeli media as having used scissors to carry out the alleged attack. A
spokesperson for Hadassah hospital later confirmed that one of those
injured was a 70-year-old Palestinian resident of Bethlehem, who had a
light stabbing wound in his back, and the other was a 27-year-old
Israeli security guard who was shot in the hand, possibly by friendly
fire.
An Israeli security guard, who had been driving near the Mahane Yehuda
market on Jaffa Street, got out of his car when he saw the two girls and
quickly shot dead 16-year-old Hadeel Wajih Awwad and severely wounded
her cousin, 14-year-old Norhan Awwad.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

The teener Ashraqat Qatanani, who was killed by settler leader Gershon Mesika. (Photos from Twitter)

Updated. A 21-year-old Jewish Israeli woman who was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in the Gush Etzion region in the West Bank on Sunday died subsequently of her wounds. She was identified as Hadar Buchris, from Safed. Soldiers shot and killed her assailant, who the Shin Bet security service identified as 34-year-old Isam Thwabteh from Beit Fajar, a village near Bethlehem. He was the 94th Palestinian to die from Israeli bullets since October.
Earlier on Sunday a Palestinian taxidriver was shot and killed near the Israeli settlement of
Kfar Adumim into his taxi collided with another car on a main road. It is unclear if the car crash was an attack or an accident. However following the incident, an
Israeli settler said the Palestinian exited the car wielding a knife. Hebrew media reported that an Israeli settler then shot the Palestinian dead at the scene.Israeli news site Ynet reported that the Israeli settler "was lightly wounded, suffering a scratch to his hand,"
adding that it was unclear whether the scratch came from the car crash
or the alleged attempted stabbing attack.
Less than an
hour before the incident, a prominent Israeli settler, the former head of
the "Samaria regional council," Gershon Mesika, ran over a
Palestinian girl, 16, before shooting her dead.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Israeli forces stormed the office of Idha'at Al-Khalil (Radio Hebron) Saturday morning, confiscated equipment and damaged the office. Intelligence officers then delivered a military warrant ordering the station to close for six months due “incitement against Israel,” director of Radio Hebron, Amjad Shawar, told Ma’an.
It was the the second news outlet to be shut by Israel this month in this occupied West Bank city. The Israeli army confirmed that military forces, in operation with Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, and civil administration, confiscated broadcasting equipment from the station.“The al-Khalil radio station has repeatedly broadcasted content which promotes and encourages terror and
acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces,” the army said in a statement.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Ashraf Fayadh (right).
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Palestinian poet to death for
renouncing his religious faith, according to documents seen by Human
Rights Watch.Ashraf Fayadh was handed the sentence on Tuesday on
charges of “doubting the existence of God,” according to court documents
seen by the group’s Saudi Arabia researcher, Adam Coogle.
Fayadh, who was born to Palestinian parents but grew up in the Gulf kingdom,
was arrested by religious police in late 2013 after a reader complained
that one of his books, his 2008 poetry collection Inner Teachings, could encourage people to renounce Islam.
Fayadh, now 50, was released after a day due to lack of evidence, but was
rearrested in January 2014 in the southwestern city of Abha.
The poet was initially sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes, but an appeal judge this week increased the sentence, handing down the death penalty.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Updated. Three people were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting and car ramming attack in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank on Thursday afternoon. Just a few hours earlier two people were killed after a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv. The assailants in both incidents were detained.
Meanwhile a Palestinian manwho was shot in the head on 11 November died of his wounds. He was the 90th since 1 October to die form Israeli inflicted wounds.
In tthe Gush Etzion attack a Palestinian motorist armed with an Uzi submachine gun opened fire toward cars near the settlement of Alon Shvut late in the afternoon killing three people. He continued driving toward Gush Etzion Junction, where he lost control of the vehicle, ramming into another car. He was then arrested.
A young American man, reportedly a yeshiva student, and a 24-year-old Palestinian man were pronounced dead at the scene. The latter was identified as Shadi Arafa, a resident of Hebron. A 51-year-old Jewish Israeli man died of his wounds at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. He was identified as Yaacov Don, a resident of Elon Shvut. Five people were lightly wounded in the attack, including American nationals.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

With skullcap: sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement (Photo Activestills.org)

By Rami Younis
Say what you will about the Jewish state, just don’t say that the only democracy on the planet never stops challenging us. On Monday night, Israeli Defense Minister Ya’alon signed an order outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. Following the decision, the police raided the offices of 17 non-profit organizations connected to the group, confiscated documents and equipment, froze bank accounts, and announced that it would interrogate its leaders, among them Sheikh Raed Salah.
This is yet another McCarthyist decision brought to you by the Zionist establishment, both its left and right wing. And while the Palestinian leadership in Israel is busy condemning the decision, a closer look shows that the security cabinet’s decision is nothing less than a gift to the Palestinian public in Israel. (....)

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in armed clashes north
of Ramallah on Tuesday evening, with two others injured during an exchange of fire. He was the 89th Palestinian killed since 1 October.
Israel's army said that shots were fired
at an Israeli military patrol near Ramallah, with soldiers returning
fire and shooting an assailant. Three armed Palestinians
had reportedly exited a vehicle near an Israeli military patrol and
opened fire at soldiers near Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah.Two Palestinians were injured in the gun battle and detained by Israeli forces.Israeli
soldiers prevented a Red Crescent ambulance from reaching the scene of
the incident, a Ma'an reporter said, with the main Ramallah-Nablus road
closed by Israel's military.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the Qalandiya refugee camp at
dawn on Monday during a raid to demolish the home of an alleged
Palestinian attacker, witnesses said.
Israeli soldiers shot
and killed Laith Assad Munasra, 21, and Ahmad Abu al-Aish, 28, as
clashes broke out following a raid involving hundreds of Israeli forces
in the densely populated refugee camp. These two were the 87th and 88th Paletiniasn who were killed since 1 October. Dozens of other Palestinians were injured in the clashes, with Yusuf Abu Latifa, 17, critically wounded. Witnesses said Israeli forces stopped an ambulance
he was being carried in and detained him while he was en route to
hospital.

Egyptian forces on Sunday shot and killed 15 Sudanese migrants who were
attempting to illegally cross the border into Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
The sources, who wished to remain anonymous,
said that the 15 people were among 23 migrants attempting to illegally
cross the border from Egypt's Rafah city in the northern Sinai into
Israel when Egyptian soldiers opened fire. The other eight were shot and wounded, before being evacuated to Rafah hospital, the sources said.They
told Ma'an that Egyptian border forces called on the 23 migrants to
halt, saying that they had been caught, and when the group failed to do
so, the soldiers opened fire on them.The incident reportedly took place around the number 117 border marker.
Earlier
on Sunday, the same sources reported that another eight African
migrants were caught and detained while trying to cross the border fence
in a different location. It was not clear which country those migrants
were coming from.The UN says there are some 53,000
refugees and asylum-seekers living in Israel, most of whom entered via
the desert border with Egypt.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

A Spanish court has found Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and six other senior officials guilty of crimes against humanity for
their role in the 2010 raid on Gaza-bound aid ship, Mavi Marmara. Nine
activists were killed, including one Turkish-American, and dozens
injured when Israeli commandos boarded the lead ship of a Gaza-bound
flotilla, Mavi Marmara, when it attempted to breach the blockade of the
Palestinian territory. Spanish activists were also on board the ships.
The Madrid-based Supreme Court has ordered arrest of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, ex-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, ex-defense
minister Ehud Barak, then-deputy PMs Moshe Ya'alon and Eli Yishai, and
then-state minister Benny Begin. Israel's ex-Navy Commander Eliezer
Marom is among the co-defendants found guilty by the Spanish judge.

At least 43 people were killed and more than 240 wounded on Thursday in two suicide
bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State in a crowded residential district
in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.The explosions came at time when the group is stepping
up its involvement in the Syrian civil war and Hezbollah has sent hundreds
of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the
four-year-old conflict. Government forces backed by
Hezbollah and Iranian troops have intensified their fight against mostly
Sunni insurgents, including Islamic State, since Russia launched an air
campaign in support of Assad on Sept. 30.The blasts occurred
almost simultaneously late on Thursday and struck a Shi'ite community
center and a nearby bakery in the commercial and residential area of
Bourj al-Barajneh, security sources said. A closely guarded Hezbollah-run
hospital is also nearby.Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said 43 people were killed and 240 people were wounded.Islamic
State said in a statement posted online by its supporters that its
members blew up a bike loaded with explosives in Bourj al-Barajneh and
that when onlookers gathered, a suicide bomber blew himself up among
them. The group said the attacks killed 40 people. Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said a third
suicide bomber had been killed by one of the explosions before he could
detonated his own bomb. His body was found nearby.